Garment hanger and method of reinforcing same



April 24, 1951 s. SIMMONS 2,550,167

I GARMENT HANGER AND METHOD OF REINFORCING SAME Filed June 11, 1947 I iF|G.6- 1-?7' "6 its INVENTOR. S'TANLEY SIMMONS Patented Apr. 24, 1951GARMENT HANGER AND METHOD OF.

. REINFORCING SAME Stanley Simmons, Baltimore, Md., assignor to CleanersHanger Company, Detroit, 'Mich., a

corporation of Michigan Application June 11, 1947, Serial No. 753,956

Claims.

This invention relates to reinforced wire garment hangers andparticularly to methods of applying reinforcements to such hangers.

It is common to applystruts to the lower spans of triangular wiregarment hangers, thus adding to the load capacity of the hangers andalso increasing the garment-seating width of said spans, so as tosubstantially eliminate any tendency of such a Span to produce a creasein a garment hung thereon. The struts, formed of wood or fibrous tubing,have notched ends, and it has devolved on the dry cleaners or otherindustrial users of the garment hangers to assemble the struts in thehangers with the notches receiving the hanger ends. Such manual assemblywork is tedious, laborious, and inefficient, particularly since most drycleaners lack employees skilled in work of that nature. Also it has notbeen feasible by manual assembly methods to tightly hold the struts inplace, and their escape has occasionally resulted under stresses arisingin use of the hangers, particularly in the course of delivering garmentshung thereon.

An object of the invention is to apply struts to triangular wire garmenthangers by a method lending itself to use of a power-operated machine,and hence lending itself to a much more rapid, more secure and lessexpensive assembly than methods heretofore practiced.

This and various other objects are attained by the method hereinafterdescribed and illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a wire garment hanger, illustratinan initial step in applying a wooden strut to the hanger.

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing the strut as permanently applied.

Fig. 3 is a bottom view of the same.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary end view of the same.

Fig. 5 is a bottom View of a modified assembly of hanger and strut.

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary side elevational'view of a further modification.I

As illustrated in Figs. 2, 3, and 4, a triangular wire hanger of awell-known construction comprises the usual inclined sides 5 jointlyforming an upper span, a bottom span 2, and a hook 3 connected to saidupper span at the juncture of said sides. Fitted between the ends of thehanger, just above its lower span is a wooden strut 4 havoriginalspacing of the hanger ends is sufficient to ing its ends verticallyformed with notches 5 into which the hanger ends are tightly drawn. Thestrut is preferably substantially elliptical in cross section, with itsmajor axis transverse to the plane established by the triangular hanger.The

allow a ready insertion of the strut 4 between said ends, as Fig. 1illustrates. While the strut is rigidly positioned, by any suitablemechanical means (not shown), within the hanger with its notchesregistered with the hanger ends, two reverse offsets 6 are formedrespectively in the end portions of the span 2, thus shortening saidspan sufficiently to draw the hanger ends firmly into the notches 5. Itis preferred to give these offsets a direction transverse to the planeof the hanger so as to maintain close proximity of the entire span 2 tothe strut 4. Due to the relatively reverse nature of the two offsets,they impart to the span 2 a diagonal relation to the strut 4. While nomechanism is illustrated for producing the described offsets, it isbelieved evident that these may be formed by a power-driven machine,capable of effecting the desired operation rapidly and with the exerciseof a force suitable to draw the hanger ends tightly and permanently intothe notches.

The construction shown in Fig. 5 differs from that already describedonly in that the hanger ends are firmly drawn into the notches 5a of thewooden strut Ad by forming the mid portion of the lower span 2a. with afew adjacent corrugations 7.

My method, modified as per Fig. 6, forms the lower span 2b with a pairof downwardly bowed oifsets 8 equally spaced from the hanger ends, andeffecting the desired shortening of the span and a resultant embeddingof the hanger ends in those of a tubular fibrous strut 4b. Said offsetsare useful to receive safety pins or the like 9 by which small garments(not shown) may be suspended from the hanger.

By practising the described method, and employing in such connectionpower-driven machinery of at least a semiautomatic type, it is feasibleto furnish dry cleaners and other large users of garment hangers, areinforced and guarded hanger, of superior construction to thatheretofore assembled by hand, and at a lesser cost than that of themanual assembly. At the same time, the customer is relieved of anassembly job that he cannot efficiently perform and which he regards asa nuisance. Use of the fibrous struts 4b eliminates need forpreformation of notches in the strut ends.

The extensive field of use of hangers produced by the disclosed methodis evident from the fact that approximately half of all manufacturedwire hangers require some type of shield for the lower span to safeguardgarments hung thereon, some such shields having a reinforcing value andothers being merely cardboard strips. While such strips are inthemselves quite inexpensive, their manual application to wire hangersrenders the final cost of the shielded hanger greater than that of theherein-disclosed, machine-made assembly.

What I claim is: r

1. The method of reinforcing a substantially triangular wire garmenthanger by a strut, consisting in disposing the strut between the ends ofthe hanger and in substantial parallelism with the lower span of thehanger, such strut being proportioned to fit freely between said ends,and then crimping said span and thereby permanently reducing its lengthto embed the hanger ends in the strut ends.

2. The method of reinforcing a substantially triangular wire garmenthanger by a strut, consisting in disposing the strut between the ends ofthe hanger and in substantial parallelism with the'lowe'r span of thehanger, such strut being proportioned to fit freely between said ends,and then forming said span with a plurality of offsets permanentlyreducing the span length and embedding the hanger ends in the strutends.

3. The method of reinforcing a substantially triangular wire garmenthanger by a strut, consisting in disposing the strut between the ends ofthe hanger and in substantial parallelism with the lower span of thehanger, such strut being proportioned to fit freely between said ends,and offsetting the lower span of the hanger in a direction transverse tothe plane established by the sides of the hanger, and therebypermanently reducing the span length and embedding the hanger ends inthe strut ends.

4. The process of reinforcing a substantially triangular hanger by astrut, consisting in notching the strut ends, disposing the strutbetween and in proximity to the hanger ends, and in substantialparallelism with the lower span of the hanger, such strut beingproportioned to fit freely between said ends, and then offsetting saidlower span and thereby permanently reducing its length and drawing thehanger ends into the notches of the strut.

5. In combination with a substantially triangular wire garment hanger,of a strut extending from end to end of said hanger above and in closeproximity to the lower span, the lower span having its end portionsoffset in opposite directions substantially transversely to the plane ofthe hanger, establishing a straddling relation between each strut endand the corresponding hanger end, and establishing a substantiallydiagonal relation of said span to said strut.

STANLEY SIMMONS.

REFERENCES CITED UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Ruen Feb. 10, 1942Number

